Dragon's Blood (Black Planet Book 1) (3 page)

She looked down at her hand and picked at a sliver of fingernail, peeling it away completely.

“
S
o what are you thinking
, Tanaka?”

She paused on the ladder, looking at Aiden’s long, lean form as he reclined on her vintage deck chair. “I’m thinking you’d better not ruin my chair. I had to hang that thing off the dock for hours to soak the Marina mud from it. Getting it up here was no fun.”

For the brave at heart, the Marina was a treasure trove. You could crawl out on boards and planks and haul in old shit that had sunk after the Big Shake. Small shakers and high tide regularly pushed the Marina District’s muddy gifts to the surface.

She threw a leg over the ledge and dropped lightly to the rooftop. It used to be black tarpaper. She’d painted it white and had been building garden boxes and planters around the space. Her Japanese grandfather had started the rooftop garden; she’d continued with it, establishing a lush roofscape. It was her territory and it pissed her off that he’d managed to leap over from a neighboring rooftop.

“No, I mean it. What are you really thinking?” He stretched, arching his back. No doubt he’d not even been home and to bed yet, and it was the dawn of a new day. She forced away the memory of the muscular body hidden under his well-worn clothing.

Annie crossed to her training area and began slow stretches. What was she really thinking? She was pissed as hell that he’d invaded her privacy. Annie cherished sunrise on her rooftop. She was angry that he was part of her investigation, angry that he questioned her skills after three years of partnership, and in spite of five years of separation.

She hated the way she felt when she looked at him. She hated that her guilt wasn’t all from Lisa’s death. That’s what she was really thinking.

She started her warm-ups, the old training coming naturally to her. She didn’t even have to think as she bent her knees, twisting from side to side. Old Guo Lee had taught her this form when she was a child. A dead martial art, save for a few Chinese families here and there. Americans, too. There were
gweilo
teachers who’d learned and passed it to their students.

She’d been a teen when it occurred to her how strange it was that a Chinese family had tutored a Japanese girl in their family art. Her grandfather Tanaka had raised her and had never commented on her becoming the protégé of a noted kung fu teacher. A
Chinese
teacher.

She’d carefully refrained from calling Guo Lee her
sifu
in Grandpa’s presence.

She centered, blocked left, then right, sixty reps, and smoothly shifted to a punch. Fifteen minutes in and she was warmed up and sweating. She moved into
Pi
, or metal stance, and settled, holding till the sweat ran freely down her brow. She pulled through the stance and held on the other side, willing herself to complete focus, and forgetting the presence of Aiden Chen in her private space.

a
iden sighed impatiently
. There were five elements and eight animals in the Lee family’s
Hsing-I
form. If he let her go, she’d spend the next couple hours working her forms and stances. And while it was wonderful to watch, they weren’t getting anywhere. In all the years he’d known Annie Tanaka, and had worked beside her, Chen had never seen her fight. She’d always known the right thing to say to defuse a situation. When things went bad, she’d step in and suddenly the perp was restrained.

Nifty skills but she’d never been inside a ring. Or worse yet, a cage.

Annie paused, wiping sweat from her face.

“You warmed up yet?” She cast him a bland glance and nodded. “Okay, let’s bang.” He hopped up and smiled sweetly. “Don’t get your hopes up, honey. It’s not what it sounds like.” A flicker of annoyance crossed her face and he knew he’d scored.

It bugged the hell out of him that she’d gone all impassive on his ass. This was her guarded look, the look that told him of her distrust. She used to be open with him, back before.

Back before she’d fucked up and watched his wife die. Aiden cloaked himself in anger and pushed away the annoyance, letting cold fury seep in. What he’d read in that report hadn’t changed anything. Not much. She was a trained cop and her failure had cost the life of his wife. Granted, she’d been injured, but still, she could have done something…

“Stand in front of me.” She moved in, instinctively putting herself into position. “You ever do this before?” She shook her head. “Okay, horse stance; then you’re going to twist from the waist. We’re going to bang arms.”

They began slowly, her slender forearms making contact with his steely muscles, their skin slapping together. Gradually, he upped the force. Her breathing became deep and steady, telling she was in pain. Which was the point of the exercise.

“Now drop your arm, we’re going to bang the front part.” She picked it up quickly, and soon, they alternated front to back in a rhythmic, sinuous dance. When the skin on her arms began to glow pink, Aiden slowed to a stop. To her credit she didn’t complain, though she rubbed at her arms. He headed for his bag and pulled out a bottle of liniment.

“This’ll help with bruising,” he said gruffly. She nodded and rubbed the stuff on her arms, wrinkling her nose at the smell. Every family with a martial arts tradition had their own version of “juice,” or bone-break liniment. He doubted the Lees trusted her with their recipe. She was a student, not family.

“Okay, Tanaka. I know you’re in shape and can move. What I don’t know is if you can take a hit. Can you?”

He struck. Hard.

The blow should have floored her. It should have landed square in the belly and taken her down. Instead, Chen found himself with an arm behind his back, head down at an awkward angle. It’d been a cheap shot, and he deserved the humiliation.

“Slick.” He grinned, twisting into a low fighter’s stance once she released his arm. Okay, they’d spar if she felt so confident. He circled, grinning in amusement as she stood always facing him, relaxed and seemingly unprepared. Aiden stepped in to punch, connected with nothing, and found himself face-down on the roof.

“Look, Tanaka, this is all well and good, but you can’t go in the ring like this.” She released him and stood back as he rose. “Listen, your opponent will come in like pile-drivers, and I can’t help if I can’t gauge how you take a hit…”

“Who says I have to take a hit? That would be stupid.”

“That would be boring, and people don’t bet on boring.”

“Well, I’m not going in as a career fighter, Aiden.”

“Yes, my dear, you are. If you’re going to get close to the insiders, you need to play the game.”

Many of the illegal fighters were from the outside, they weren’t Wharf people. She might be on home turf, but she was still an outsider.

“Okay, fine.” She stood and took a flashy stance. They closed, she danced and ducked away. When his blow finally connected, she gasped, staggered, but didn’t fall. He was impressed.

“Okay, you know most of the fights are to the knock-out. The ones I run are more traditional, ten rounds or five seconds down. None are to the death, but that’s only words. Some of the high stakes fights offer a payout on death.”

“Lovely lifestyle you’ve embraced, Aiden.”

He didn’t defend himself.

“I’ll want you to draw it out for as many rounds as you can, as flashy as you can. In women’s fighting, it’s no holds barred. If you’re fighting a guy, no going for the nads. They’ll also make you cut down your fingernails.”

A
nnie narrowed
her
eyes at Aiden, nodded, and mentally prepared to square off again. In truth, that blow had hurt. Not the worst she’d felt, but it’d been bad. He began circling like a wolf. She went low, launching before he attacked. In the midst of a flurry of punches and kicks, Annie snuck in a few stunning blows -- armpits, inner thighs, and ribcage.

“Fuck!” He yelled, rubbing his reddened torso.

She backed off and grinned, feeling the glow of finally sharing what she could really do.

“You’re real!”

“I’ve been doing this for over twenty years, Aiden. You know the Lees. Do you seriously think they taught me just so I could balance my chi?”

He coughed, bending over at the waist. He brought up blood and spat on the roof. She hadn’t held back with him. If he’d been a Norm, he’d be on his way to the hospital. Old Guo Lee was a warrior. He’d been one of the founders of Wharf. He practiced an ancient form of martial arts called
Hsing-I
. Less flashy than other forms, it was direct and to the point, a devastating attack followed by a swift take-down.

Following the Big Shake when the city had collapsed into violence and chaos, Guo Lee had led his family to a makeshift fortress on the waterfront, taking in as many as would come over the years. In those darkest days, they’d fought off rape gangs and every sort of marauder, including those who carried badges.

Guo had eventually disappeared. He’d gone home to China, but his family carried on, teaching carefully chosen students. Their skills were legendary. In those beginning years, the Lees and their students had drawn the line between right and wrong in Wharf. They’d been the enforcers in an otherwise anarchic society.

She’d learned from the best in the world.

A
iden looked
at
Annie in awe. She was again standing relaxed and at ease. He shook his head in exasperation. How did he not know this about her? They’d been partners for years.

“If I wanted to kill you, Aiden, I could do it. No amount of illegal nanites could stop me.” She moved in and planted a stinging blow to his face, bending like a willow when he struck back. “In a Norm, I could hit them in a kill spot. I know one that kills the opponent slowly; it takes maybe a year or more. Or I could just do this…”

Suddenly his hand was trapped in a nerve hold. His entire arm and shoulder were shrieking with pain. Aiden jerked his arm to his body, dragging her close, free hand buried in her hair. “Damn it, Annie, let go!”

“You first!” She glared. Her face was inches from his, her body pressed up against his. Angrily, he pulled her tighter against his body, letting her feel his sudden and shocking arousal. If it wasn’t for the shrieking pain in his arm…

He gritted his teeth against the agony, tightened his fingers in her hair, and tilted her face to his. Their breath mingled, lips brushed, and they froze, both appalled at how far they’d gone. Angry brown eyes met and held, and for just that moment, there was nothing in the world that Aiden wanted more than to kiss her. There was nothing he wanted more than her complete submission.

He abruptly released her hair. She let go of his wrist and his arm dropped uselessly to his side. He shook it while she rubbed her head. Her cheeks were pink with embarrassment.

“Okay, Annie. Rule number one, you don’t let anyone get close like that, or take you to the ground. Your strength is pretty obvious; your weakness is going to be close contact.”

“Rules are going to get broken, Aiden. At some point, I’ll go down. You’re going to have to work with me on that.”

There. Back to normal. Business. He flexed his still-numb fingers and focused on her words.

She was right, it would happen at some point, someone would take her down and she should be prepared. “You can take a hit pretty good, but we need to work on your recovery time. Most fighters feel pain the same way, and even for a Nano, it hurts like hell to get hit. That’s what the arm banging is about, to desensitize you to blows.”

She nodded. “We did similar drills in training. It’s just been a long time.”

“Okay, I put out word that I’m training a new fighter. We’ll practice up here or at my place for now. I don’t want anyone to know anything till they see you. I don’t want the locals to know what you’re up to. Your first match is in an alley cage for next week. Not with a top-notch fighter, but it’ll give you a taste for what’s going to happen. You ready?”

He saw her throat work as she swallowed, but she nodded. Their scuffle had brought her back to Earth.

“You scared?”

“Yeah, but not for the reason you think.”

She turned away, beginning her stretches. Aiden watched, distracted by her unconscious grace. She could have been a dancer. Instead she was an underpaid cop living in Wharf. Go figure.

“
Sifu
Guo Lee used to say it was easier to let the tiger out of the cage than to put it back in. Now I understand.”

“Explain.” He stretched also; sometimes the nanites lulled him into laziness and bad habits.

“I enjoyed this. You’re big and strong and enhanced and I hurt you. I haven’t had a sparring partner since the Lees all went to Hong Kong. There are a few other students, but I don’t know who they are. They don’t know about me.” It was Guo Lee’s method of preventing his students from forming lethal fight gangs.

“Well, honey, you’re about to get more than your fill of sparring.”

She nodded and he understood. She’d let the beast out just the tiniest bit, and it had liked the taste of blood. She’d have a hard time walking away when this was finished.

T
he woman was a brute
.

Her bleached blonde hair was shorn tight to the scalp, and she was clearly hopped on hormones as well as nanites. Her arms bulged; distended veins skimmed the surface of crudely tattooed skin. She was over six feet tall.

And Annie was locked inside a cage with her.

Old rickety spotlights illuminated the cage. There wasn’t a huge amount of space, but Annie figured she could utilize the walls and maybe even the roof. Zelda Bernova was too heavy to do the same.

Her gaze flicked to Aiden. He looked grim but worked the crowd, getting the money flowing, bringing up the odds. Those odds were heavily against her, and he stood to lose big if she went down too quickly. So the longer she stayed on her feet, the better. If she won, that was best.

She’d learned that while Aiden was an active high stakes fighter, he also managed and trained some of the up-and-comers. So he made a cut off of his own wins, bigger cuts off of his stable. And she was now his dark horse.

Across the ring, the blonde monster was strutting, thwapping meaty fists together. Chen had warned her that this one would go for severe injuries. Zelda was on the tough climb up out of the alleys and was building her rep.

So she was to fight carefully, adding a bit of flash when she could. If she couldn’t win, at least hang in long enough to give the crowd their money’s worth.

No problem. Annie smiled grimly. One way or another, there was going to be blood.

When the bell rang and the blonde woman charged, Annie was no longer there. She’d leapt for the mesh at the top of the cage, kicking viciously at the other woman’s head. Bernova went down hard, flailed and grabbed Annie’s ankle in a brutal grip. Zelda dragged her from the roof, struck at her hard and hit concrete instead of flesh, shattering bone while Annie rolled and came lightly to her feet. She bounced back and forth lightly, taking a boxer’s stance. She gestured to Bernova, and grinned wickedly.

Blood dripped from Zelda’s shattered hand. The crowd roared.

And thus began Annie’s career as a cage-fighter.

* * *

“
S
o how was that
?”

Annie looked up at Aiden and he struggled to show no emotion. She nursed a swollen cheek and a deep abrasion on one arm. A chunk of satiny black hair straggled down her cheek, clinging to the drying sweat on her face. He ignored the trembling in his gut and considered more important things. Money had been made and lost on the fight and news of Aiden’s new fighter had started it to spread. After collecting his winnings and her cut from the organizer, Aiden had whisked her away into the alley passages. They’d climbed up a series of ladders before finally coming to a halt on a broad ledge.

She was buzzing more than the bundle of live electrical cables that snaked above their heads.

“Well, next time you manipulate the fight like that, don’t finish it dead center.”

“Longer? Shorter?”

He shook his head, letting a rueful grin escape. “I’d like to say finish when you know you can win, but then there’d be no action!”

She was practically hopping from adrenaline, but soon enough, she’d come down and start feeling the pain. And there would be a world of pain. Zelda was out cold but when she woke, she’d be good to go right away. Annie would need several days of down time.

Annie shivered. “Are you like this after? What do you do to cope?”

“Always. That’s part of the appeal. And to cope? Either drink or fuck. Both will work.” That shut her up. She’d no doubt noticed some of the sleek city females who liked to prowl the circuit, looking for sweaty meat. Generally, after a fight, he’d let one take him to an alley, where he’d take the edge off with a blow job or a quick and dirty fuck. Then he’d drink and carouse the night away, dragging himself home at dawn.

He couldn’t see Annie Tanaka doing that. He couldn’t bear thinking of her doing that.

“Come on, we need to get you home.” He headed off, not checking to see if she followed. He moved quickly. If he kept her busy, she might not be able to find her way back to his place later.

“This isn’t the way home.”

“It is for me. My place is closer.” He felt heavy silence behind him and grinned in the darkness. He knew exactly what she was thinking. The adrenaline had amped her in more ways than one; it had a way of making a fighter really horny afterwards.

“I want you to ice those bruises. I’ve got a freezer. Doubt that you’ve got one.”

“I do.”

“Whatever.” He jumped up to a ledge. There was a bit of a delay before she followed. She was starting to feel the fight. He took her up another level and then crossed a sagging ramp.

“Here.” He slipped in through a window, pausing as she followed. There was a door on the ground level of the building. The residents had long ago boarded it against the dregs prowling the streets and alleys. It took a certain level of skill and strength to enter the building without getting killed.

The building had only a few functioning lights so they moved carefully in the partial darkness. They climbed up a stairway where he unlocked the padlock on the landing. There was a short hall leading to a heavy metal door.

He pushed open the door and stood aside. “Home sweet home. Such as it is.”

A
nnie was stunned
. The place was huge. Huge and open and had probably cost him more than a lifetime on a cop’s salary. To one side plants lined a bank of windows that faced east to the bay. They were on the extreme eastern edge of Wharf. The ocean breeze drifted in, clean and curiously empty of the scents of the thousands of bodies crowded in such tight proximity. Her place had been in the family for generations, but it didn’t compare to this. He had the entire floor of the building. The neighbors undoubtedly crammed eight or nine bodies into a space a fraction of the size.

This was palatial.

“Ohhh…” she groaned. He had a tub for hot baths. She had a weak, leaky shower and a basin that she sometimes ran warm water into. That bath was the promise of bliss.

“Sorry, no heat just now.” He guided her to what was clearly a training area, where she took a seat on a worn weight bench. She sat, looking in awe as he lit a couple floor lamps. Electricity was available in Wharf, but it was prone to overloads and black-outs, and even fires if not properly wired. Nobody wanted to see Wharf lose whatever lighting it had. Nor did anyone want to see it burn down. She wondered if she had solar panels somewhere.

“Strip. Let me see the damage.” She glared at him. He glared back. “Annie, don’t be stupid. If I’m to be your manager and trainer, I need to take care of you. So get over it.”

“You were just supposed to get me the fights and take your cut. You’ve done that.”

“Yeah, well, now my name’s attached to you, so my rep is at stake.” He stood firm, so she sighed and submitted. She rose stiffly and peeled off the skin-tight spandex shorts, kicking off her shoes at the same time. Then she stripped down to her sports bra.

“Everything, Tanaka.” He wasn’t even looking. She turned her back and stripped to the skin.

Even though she couldn’t see him, she knew the moment he saw it. She heard it in the sudden stillness, the soft intake of breath.

“Nice ink.”

“Thanks.”

Before leaving for China, Meng Lee and his wife had given her the tattoo that marked Annie as a member of the
Shen Lung
school. She hadn’t been thrilled. Her Japanese roots associated tattoos with
Yakuza
, but they’d insisted. It had taken days. Most of the color had been applied using the old methods rather than high-tech tattoo guns. Hours and days of jaw-clenching, spine-twisting pain.

The
Shen Lung
school didn’t belt, they didn’t give levels or rankings. You were a student, and when you were no longer a student, they marked you appropriately. She had no doubt there were plenty of students who would be forever marked as novice, simply because they couldn’t bear the pain of the tattoo.

She’d never seen the entire tattoo, as her shame battled her pride. A clawed foot reached over her shoulder, a scaled tail looped down her hip. Japanese cherry blossoms trickled from the dragon’s claw onto her left breast.

“The style’s not Japanese.” Aiden’s voice was hushed.

“No, the Lees did it before they went back to China. It’s the school emblem.”

“You should have told me if you wanted it kept private.” He sounded angry. Why would he be angry? It was
her
skin being bared.

She sighed and gazed out the window. In her entire adult life, no one had ever seen it. Lovers came to her in the darkness, or she wore a short, silken robe. Once they went horizontal, they didn’t care anymore. And Annie Tanaka never, ever allowed a man to take her from behind.

She sighed in resignation. “You were right. I don’t like people seeing it, but you can’t train me if I keep half my body hidden.” She turned and went back to the bench, ignoring him as he began a closer inspection. He applied liniment to several bruised spots, antiseptic to open wounds.

“Shit. I should sit you in an ice bath. You’re going to be black and blue tomorrow.”

“It’s not that bad.” She held an icepack to her cheek. He tossed her a packet. She opened it and looked suspiciously at the white pills. They had the stamp of an herbal shop in Chinatown.

“Aspirin. Still the best anti-inflammatory around.”

She tossed them back with some cool water. Her mouth stung. She ran her tongue over her teeth, feeling for chips. “Next time, I want a mouth guard.”

He nodded, feeling slightly stupid that he hadn’t thought of that himself. “Come on.” He tossed her an old cotton robe. “You can bunk down over here.”

“I want to go home.”

“Well, you can’t.” He took her by the arm, surprisingly gentle. “Get used to it. After a fight, you stay here. You aren’t enhanced, so if there’s an emergency, I don’t want you alone.”

“Can I take a hot bath?”

“No, not while you’re still bruising. You need to keep icing.”

She sighed. She’d known the answer, but was feeling a bit childish. And sleepy. “What was in those tablets?”

“Aspirin.” And something to cut the pain. She didn’t need to know.

“Toilet?”

a
iden nodded
toward
a doorway a few feet away. He waited impatiently while she did her business, pacing the length of the worn wooden floor. She might be knocked out for the night, but he was edgy, restless. Hard and horny. It’d been enough to see her naked -- she had a beautiful, sleek body. But when she turned away, revealing the tattoo… his heart had nearly stuttered to a halt.

The Lees had done more than mark their student, they’d labeled her. He knew enough about the Lees to know they’d proclaimed her a master of their art. They’d also made her a target for rival gangs and wannabes. He’d have to come up with some sturdy fight-gear for her to wear that would never reveal those tattoos.

The loose T-shirt and bra she’d worn tonight could have been catastrophic if Zelda had managed to pull her clothing off.

Annie emerged from the bathroom looking more tired than before, and Aiden pushed aside any guilt he felt for giving her the opiate-laced aspirin. More than ice and liniment, she needed sleep. Tending a Norm was going to take some adjusting on his part. They were so damn fragile.

She settled on the futon he’d made up on the floor. Her eyes drifted closed, breath dropping to a steady rhythm. Aiden watched her for a few moments, and then headed for the door.

He needed… something. He needed liquor and a fuck, that’s what. He needed to laugh and lose himself in crude entertainments, maybe find a floor-whore to suck him off. She didn’t need a babysitter, she needed sleep.

He stepped into the stairwell and headed for the outside. Paused and turned back.

She practiced at dawn. He’d be coming home at dawn. He resented his schedule being disrupted, but in truth, he’d profited from her win tonight. She was doing this for her job, and she didn’t need to tell him that she was terrified. She hid it well, but what had happened all those years ago had seared a mark on her soul. Yet here she was, chasing a monster only she could see.

He wasn’t invested. His wife was dead, his life buried with her. Annie could tilt at windmills all she wanted. But he’d made money off her tonight. Lots of money. The least he could do was to adapt for a few weeks.

Aiden closed and locked the stairwell door and returned to the apartment. He slipped his shoes off and settled onto his bed, knowing he was in for a sleepless night.

Outside in the hall, a shadow waited in the darkness, writhing in denial and frustration.

T
he bastard had
put
something extra in her aspirin.

Annie tossed restlessly, warmth blooming over her body, winding into every orifice. Heat snaked into her mouth, spilling from her eyes, gathering around her
tan tien
, that power center just under her navel.

As warmth spilled into her sex, juices ran from her body, preparing her for sex.